Stargate: Return of the Ancients, Season 1, Ep 14
by Aer-ki Jyr
Summary: Episode, "Multiplication"
1. Chapter 1

The stargate on resource outpost 13 opened with the standard kawoosh illuminating the nighttime forest. It quickly retracted into the subtle fluctuations of the event horizon, dimming the ambient glow on the thick vegetation that engulfed the gate in all directions save one.

In front of the gate set on a perfectly perpendicular angle a long, narrow clearing had been sheered through the forest. Even the ground had been scorched clean of any vegetation and only now had thin sprouts of grass begun to reintroduce themselves to the hard packed dirt trail that stretched ahead for kilometers.

Out of the event horizon stepped a solitary Wraith, eyes covered in some type of tracking goggles. It spied the artificial clearing and hissed with a mix of satisfaction and wrath before blending into the vegetation and traveling parallel to the path to avoid detection.

It moved off barely half a kilometer before it came to a small clearing adjacent to the main line. Nothing was present, but the dusty ground bore angular lines…some type of buried structure lay here unused and the forest had begun to cover it over.

The Wraith cocked its head in consideration then moved on, making sure not to cross into the open. It traveled farther up the long corridor until it widened out into a 400 meter wide clearing…with three other corridors exiting at various angles.

Anger building, the Wraith continued on, taking the leftmost of the tracks and followed it to where it dead-ended in a wide open valley with several structures of Lantean design arrayed in neat rows, some of which extended up several dozens of meters into the air.

Several small craft sat adjacent to one of the buildings, attached end to end, and appeared to be the approximate width of the forest corridors. Off in the distance several dozen individuals could be seen moving in and out of multiple buildings with robotic precision.

The Wraith had seen enough. It backtracked slowly to the stargate, then waited patiently for several minutes to make sure it hadn't been followed. When no activity resulted, it pulled back the vegetation from the unused dialing device and activated the stargate.

With the wormhole established and no enemy in sight, the Wraith smoothly detached from the forest and slid back through the gate…

The Wraith emerged on the outskirts of one of their surface bases and immediately felt his connection with his brethren return. He communicated what he had found with a few simple thoughts, allowing them to see what he had seen.

A chill ran through him as he felt the queen's mind connect with his. She drew from him all of his memories and issued new orders… all within a handful of seconds.

The Wraith turned about and redialed the stargate to the world it had just scouted. Seven more Wraith emerged from the shadows and joined it, all 'males' and all scouts. They returned through the stargate and dispersed…

* * *

"That is not possible," Rodney protested to Stevenson in one of Atlantis's many scientific labs. This one Ryan had set up to assist in the retraining of acquired personnel.

Stevenson lifted an eyebrow patiently. "Why not?"

"Well, for starters, half of everything I know about space/time comes from his postulates…and more than that I've seen evidence of it firsthand."

"Really?" Stevenson asked curious, yet he knew for a fact that he was completely wrong.

"Yes, really," Rodney replied indignantly. "Einstein's theory of relativity is a proven fact. Nothing can exceed the speed of light in our dimension and will experience time dilation the closer it approaches that barrier. The only way you can achieve FTL is through transition to an alternate dimensional state that allows you to bypass the relativistic effects."

Stevenson leaned a bit closer. "For a self-proclaimed genius, you are rather gullible."

"Gullible?!" Rodney complained loudly.

"A universal speed limit is nonsense. The very definition of relative means you can have no absolutes."

"That's what one would think," Rodney said, raising a knowing finger for emphasis, "but when you do the math you find an undisputable escalating power ratio required to reach light speed…and even with your nifty Zed Pee Ems you can't produce enough power to breach that barrier, because infinite is rather…unreachable."

Stevenson rolled his eyes. Even with the basic neural download he'd given him, McKay wasn't about to drop this nonsense. The man HAD to be right, even when he was wrong.

"What was this evidence you were referring to?"

"As you're doubtlessly familiar with the _Tria_, that shouldn't be a great leap of logic...considering you're an ancient and all."

"What about it?" Ryan humored him with infinite patience.

"What about it? The ship's hyperdrive was damaged, so it had to use thruster-based technology to leave the Pegasus galaxy. They suffered from time dilation effects due to relativity as a result, which was the only reason why they survived 10,000 years and made our meeting them possible."

"Have you heard of stasis technology, McKay?" Stevenson asked sarcastically.

"So, what, they tucked themselves into stasis for the entire 10,000 year trip? We saw what kind of degradation that led to on the _Aurora_. No matter how advanced you are you can't cheat old age, not even with your fancy stasis tech. The only way they could have survived that long was due to time dilation, which was the result of their velocity approaching the speed of light. The faster they went, the more they slowed down."

"Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds? You just contradicted yourself."

Rodney held up his hands. "I know it may look that way to the untrained eye, but if you do the calculations it all adds up."

"Before you ramble on any more, it might be helpful for you to know that I've read the _Tria_'s logs."

"If that's so, then why are we even having this conversation?"

"First off, the stasis technology that the Lanteans' used was designed for Alterra. That's why the crew you found on the _Aurora_ decayed."

Rodney frowned. "Why?"

"Because Alterra have a higher regenerative ability than Lanteans do, and way more than Humans."

"Slight offense taken at that, but go on."

"Some minor degradation occurs during stasis…think of it as freezer burn. Our physiology can heal itself as it happens, the Lanteans couldn't, not completely. The only way it works for them is to take breaks in between bouts of stasis to allow their bodies to rejuvenate. This is what the crew of the _Tria_ did. They rotated in and out every two years or so for a three day interval."

"Ok, so for the crew of the _Aurora_ that wasn't a possibility because the ship was damaged and the decks depressurized. Mystery solved there. But that doesn't have anything to do with the _Tria_'s time dilation."

"There was none."

"Not possible," Rodney said, determined.

"Ok, genius. The logs show that you contacted the _Tria_ while it was still at near light speed."

"True."

"Was it a text message, or real time audio?"

"As I recall, they used a real time holographic image of the ship's captain," Rodney said, proud to show off his detailed memory.

"Then answer me this…how could the _Tria_'s captain communicate with you in real time if she was, as you say, experiencing time dilation at the moment of communication? It would have taken several of your months for her to utter a single word, given the differences between the timeframes."

"Well…" Rodney said, catching himself. "Actually, I…"

"See," Stevenson said, patting McKay on the back, "simple logic."

"What…" Rodney said to himself as he tried to reconcile the disparate data. "Wait a minute…if that's true, and I'm not saying it is, then why were they only traveling at near light speed?"

"Dark route paradox," Stevenson explained. "Everything within a galaxy is moving at approximately the same speed due to the velocities required to maintain galactic orbit."

Rodney nodded. "Anything remarkably faster would spin out of the galaxy and anything remarkably slower would fall to the center."

"Correct. This creates a relative medium through which a ship must travel. This medium is comprised of all matter within the galaxy, whether it be a planet, a cloud of dust…or a rock the size of your thumb."

Rodney glanced down at his digit, trying to comprehend. "Impact velocities."

Stevenson nodded. "Since everything else is moving at about the same speed, if you accelerate yourself multiple times light speed you run the risk of impacting the debris from the galactic medium…assuming, of course, that you can navigate your way around the big stuff. Now, a rock the size of your thumb floating in space as you hit it at ten times the speed of light is equivalent to a projectile fired at you at a velocity of ten times the speed of light. Do the calculations and you will see the kinetic force that has to be absorbed by the ship. In the _Tria_'s case, by her shields."

"You're saying the _Tria_ couldn't go faster than light speed anyway?"

"No, I'm saying that the faster you go, the more you risk destroying your ship. With a potentia enhancing their shields, they could absorb debris velocities around 1.3-1.4 times the speed of light. That number drops as the debris gets larger. They could have gambled that they wouldn't run into anything in the intergalactic void and accelerated much faster, say 1000 times light speed, but doing so means even smaller objects will kill the ship…or at least put holes in it, and possibly the crew inside. And when you get to such great velocities that a few molecules are enough to cause damage…well, it isn't worth the risk. The _Tria_ kept her speed within range of what the crew knew was a safe speed, given their shield strength. Anything else, given how long the trip would be, was deemed too hazardous to try."

Rodney considered that. "Why not just use sensors to spot and avoid incoming debris?" he asked, realizing his own error. "Wait, wait…the sensors would be limited due to the relative incoming speeds."

"And the small size of the debris. The _Tria_'s sensors can't detect a marble at 100,000 kilometers."

"But all our…Earth's…hyperdrive designs are based around the theory of relativity, plus I don't know how many other technologies, and those technologies work. If his theories weren't correct we'd…"

"Just remember this simple formula and you should be alright," Stevenson offered. "E = M."

"Energy equals mass?" Rodney asked, more confused.

"No…Einstein equals moron."

Rodney sneered. "Very funny."

"I'm serious. Just disregard everything he said and it'll make understanding things a lot easier."

"Even his first postulate?" Rodney asked amicably, his defiance gone.

"Scientists don't get credit for stating the obvious," Stevenson said, leaving. "I'll be back in two hours. Hopefully by then you'll have your wits about you and we can continue from where we left off."

"Where are you going?"

"Zelenka needs help with a project."

"What! You've already given him work to do?"

Stevenson waved goodbye, leaving Rodney to stew. A dozen steps down the hallway Sheppard caught him.

"We have a problem."

"What?"

"Somehow the Wraith found one of your mining sites. We just got an automated distress signal and a bit of telemetry. Looks like they blasted it to hell."


	2. Chapter 2

Teyla made her way through the dense jungle under cloak until she came to the edge of a small pool, but unlike the hundreds of others she'd maneuvered around in her surface search, this one was special. Her armor's telemetry was detecting residual trace elements in the water and the bank of the pool where the tiny waves had floated the material and stranded it on the shore. To her heads up display the pool was slightly aglow, with a brighter ring around the edge.

Looking up, around, and down, Teyla made sure she was alone, then stepped into the pool. The displaced water was obvious around her invisible form, but she waited until her head was beneath the surface before she disengaged her cloaking device.

However, the color of her armor shifted to a murky green, similar in color to the haze in the water. The visible camouflage made her almost undetectable just a meter below the surface as she slid down the steep bank. A few steps in and the bottom dropped out completely.

She let herself fall through the dark water, but her heads up display showed her a bright diagram of the shaft's walls, the surface above, and the expanding tunnel below as she quickly sank. Her armor was quite heavy, and she used that to her advantage.

Fifty meters below the surface the tunnel/funnel ended and a large underwater cavern appeared. She continued to sink through it for a hundred more meters until her limited sensors tagged a large structure coming up beneath her. Her feet touched the surface of the Wraith facility and reestablished her equilibrium as she dropped down into a crouch. She glanced to the right and left, getting her bearings via the computer image of the darkness.

Content that she hadn't been noticed, Teyla slowly walked through the thick waters over the surface of the biological structure looking for an entry hatch. If she had to make one herself she could, but that would then flood the facility. The Wraith were coming and going by ship, so there had to be a way in.

It took two hours of searching before Teyla discovered an indented alcove in the 'roof' by accident. Her sensors said it was flat, but when she stepped onto a particular section of the facility her foot passed through a force field and she nearly fell in. The newly minted Alterra caught her balance, teetering on her other foot and slashing at the water with cupped hands to move her backward.

She slowly tipped toward safety and steadied herself. She manually adjusted her sensors through a virtual pull down menu and reconfigured them sufficiently enough to discern the field from the hull.

She had to give the Wraith credit for their ingenuity. Beneath the field was air, with the water suspended above. Several darts and a lowly lit hangar bay revealed itself when Teyla poked her head through the field, but here wasn't the place to drop down.

Teyla pulled herself back up into the water and swam across to the other side and settled on the edge. She lay down on her side and slid her feet down through the energy barrier.

With a sudden movement, Teyla was sucked through by gravity as her buoyancy was lost. She landed in a crouch between the wall and a parked dart. She stayed there, motionless, for several seconds while she surveyed the area. Neither her armor's sensors nor her eyes and ears could detect anything. The bay was empty.

Teyla stood up and sleuthed around the perimeter of the large bay, glancing upward at the powerful force field holding up so much water. Yes, the Wraith were clever, but they still had to die…all of them. And the sooner the better.

The headpiece of her armor retracted, opening her biological senses to the environment. The room smelled of must and the odd, familiar scent of Wraith biotech. Teyla walked over to the only door and pressed her ear against it. With her Wraith genetics gone, she could no longer sense their presence and didn't fully trust her armor's lifeform detector. Twice it had failed her in previous missions due to some unforeseen anomaly with Wraith biotech…and she'd decided to take a step backward and not use it unless absolutely necessary.

She felt more at ease relying on her skills than technology anyway, which had only been heightened by her transformation. Her hearing had become exceptionally acute, and while the Wraith weren't the noisiest of species they were heavy breathers.

Detecting nothing, she opened the door, standing out of view as she did so. She listened again…all clear.

Moving through the interior of the Wraith facility section by section Teyla reached out with her limited telepathic ability, searching for Human minds. After nearly half an hour of searching empty corridors she caught a wisp of sensation.

Figuring she'd pushed her luck enough, she redonned her hood and activated her cloaking device in concert with her lifeform scanner. To her chagrin, no Wraith lifesigns were showing. That worried her even as the crude map displayed several dozen Humans arrayed in neat rows…probably in cocoons.

Teyla deactivated both technologies and proceeded by ear. The Wraith weren't big on internal security, but there should have been at least a few walking around. And while prudence would have suggested staying cloaked, the field interfered with her vision slightly and dampened sounds by more than 30%. That wasn't good enough for Teyla, so she decided once again on the 'old school' methods that had served her well over her many years on Athos and then her stint on Colonel Sheppard's team in Atlantis.

The Alterra patiently made her way to the Humans without encountering any resistance…but where she had expected cocoons she found only one, along with liquid filled pods.

Teyla glanced around again, making sure she was alone, then pulled back a mass of tentacles revealing a translucent skin. Visible within was a small humanoid form which could have been Wraith as easily as it could have been Human, but Teyla was sensing a trace of a Human mind…in fact, it was the same trace as all of them.

Her eyes widened and she looked back at the man in the cocoon. He was unconscious, but his mind was more 'visible' to her than the others. Still, she wanted to be sure so she retracted the 'glove' on her right hand and pressed her fingertips to the man's forehead.

His mind and essence poured into her senses, giving Teyla an ethereal 'fingerprint' which she then compared to the others. She couldn't touch them, nor did they seem fully developed, but the faint presences she felt were eerily similar.

Teyla pressed her head against the pliable pod, getting in as close physical proximity as possible to boost her telepathy. She checked and rechecked the 'fingerprint' a dozen times, but in the end she still wasn't sure if it was the same, but she knew it definitely wasn't Wraith.

That said, her logic filled in the rest. Wraith captured Humans to feed on. These Humans weren't fully developed and in pods rather than cocoons. Children weren't culled and captives weren't bred. She knew this from her own experience and the files the Lanteans left behind, though how they knew for sure was beyond her.

Her gut instinct told her she was right, which implied either a shift in strategy or a complete lack of understanding of the Wraith. Either way, they were cloning Humans, possibly as a runaround to the Hoffan plague or as a means to supplement their food supply.

Had they always been able to do this, was it a new technology, was it power hungry and therefore not previously used? Many questions ran through Teyla's mind, questions she couldn't answer. But whatever the answers, this wasn't good.

Teyla decided to move on. Her mission was to rescue any captured Humans, but she had no idea how many there were. If this was the only man, her task would be relatively easy, but if he wasn't, pulling him out now might jeopardize any others in the facility. She needed to do some additional recon before she acted…and record data.

To that end she engaged the data recorders in her armor and scanned the pods before moving on. Using a mix of her own senses and her armor's systems she located another set of cloning chambers…and a single woman in a cocoon. It was an identical chamber with 38 pods. Teyla marked the location in her armor's navigation system and moved on.

She found three more cloning chambers before she crossed her first Wraith. Actually it was three of them, two warriors and one male. The male led the way while the warriors pulled a struggling Human screaming behind them.

Teyla steadied her nerves and clamped down on her urge to kill them immediately and free the Human. Instead she shadowed them. They led her to an as yet unused cloning chamber where they sedated and secured the Human in the cocoon.

Where the man had come from was of primary importance, so she backtracked to where she'd discovered them then attempted to divine their route prior to their encounter. It took a little work, and a lot of dead ends, but she eventually came to a level filled with holding cells…a third of which held conscious Human captives.

Teyla crouched down out of sight. This was it. This was what she had come for…but there were so many of them, and she only had 84 tags. They'd have to double up.

_First things first_.

Off in the distance she saw a pair of Wraith guards and heard at least four more in various directions. She relented and used her lifeform detector to get more accurate numbers and discovered twelve in total, assuming none were being shielded by irregularities in the walls.

Slipping beneath her cloaking device, Teyla snuck up behind and followed one of the Wraith moving through the halls until it was alone and out of earshot. She reached her wrist up to the back of its neck and shot it three times, the third of which hit its head as it fell to the ground. Not sure if she'd been heard, she ran off under cloak and tracked down the next nearest Wraith and disposed of it.

Teyla went on a Ronon-esk tear, killing ten of the Wraith before an alarm finally sounded.

"_You're on the clock_," she reminded herself as the final two Wraith came toward her position, unaware of her cloaking device. She caught them both in the neck with punch/shots directly into their throats. She decloaked and fired several more green bolts into their skulls to make sure they were truly down.

Knowing that there were probably more on the way, Teyla hurried to the first cell and pried open the spindle doors with her armored hands and several strategically placed energy blasts.

"Help us, please!" a woman shouted amidst an array of barely audible chatter coming from this cell and the others when they saw her wall-blue armor and exposed head.

Teyla knew better than to argue with panicky people, so she didn't bother to respond. Instead, she slipped a small adhesive disk out of her pocket beneath her armor and stuck it to the woman's forehead. A small blue light started to blink in the center of the tag as the woman reflexively reached up to touch it.

Before she could she disappeared in a flash of white light and Teyla grabbed two teenage girls, ordered them to hold onto each other, and tagged one on the arm. A moment later they both flashed away…and loud footsteps boomed from the left.

Teyla stepped out and fired several blasts down the hallway, killing two Wraith as she ducked under a stun blast. Several more quick shots killed the third Wraith and she returned to tagging the people in the cell she'd opened.

One of which she had to run down as he fled aimlessly away from the holding cells. She grabbed him angrily and smashed the tag into his exposed sternum, then left him and retreated to the next nearest cell. He vanished behind her.

She repeated the process for two more cells, killing isolated Wraith in the interim, before the heavy waves of reinforcements began. She didn't know where they were coming from, but they were coming in the dozens…which meant she had to stop tagging captives and fight.

Moving with the speed and agility that only an Alterran could achieve, Teyla ducked in and out of cover, sprinted up and down hallways, crawled above doorways, across ceilings, and over biological equipment as she evaded, separated, and thinned their numbers until she could fight them head on. She did this for nearly twenty minutes until the Wraith had either quit trying, or had run out of reinforcements to send.

Stepping over dead bodies left and right, she policed the corpses, firing additional shots to make sure they wouldn't spring back to life and take her off guard. Teyla proceeded to the other cells where she freed and tagged the remaining survivors, some 63 people total, then she went back and carefully extricated the captives in the cocoons.

Finally she got back to the first man she had found. He was the last Human to rescue, and she only had two tags left…but that would be enough.

He awoke with a gasp and Teyla caught him before he could hit the floor.

"Easy…I'm going to get you out of here," she said reassuringly.

"My…wife," he said stoically as he shook uncontrollably.

"I got the others out already," Teyla told him. "You're the last person left."

"Thank…the Ancestors," the man said, nearly fainting.

"You're welcome," Teyla said as he wavered in and out of consciousness. She placed a tag on his forehead and held him in a tight embrace, glancing at the cloning pods. They weren't fully formed yet…if she pulled them out now it would kill them.

She didn't like it, but there was nothing she could do for them.

With a flash of bright light the dim confines of the Wraith base disappeared, quickly replaced by the dull interior of the _Daedalus_'s ring room.

Two of the crew took the man from Teyla and dragged him off to the med bay. She retracted her armor into her innocuous forearm jewelry, revealing neat, trim blue garments that clung to her body in a flattering, yet formal design where the armor had been. She flicked a bit of Wraith blood out of her hair and headed for the bridge.

"Quite a haul," Ford said from the command chair.

"Yes it was," she said, sitting down on the edge of the holographic ring that had replaced the archaic vertical navigational board behind the control stations.

"We all done here?" he asked.

Teyla nodded.

"Good, because we've been recalled," Ford said as his lieutenant began to break orbit under the anonymity of their cloaking device and the shadow of four Wraith cruisers.

"For what purpose?" Teyla asked. Stevenson had given her a crew and ship along with permission to rescue as many captives as she wanted. Over the last two months she'd accumulated a total of 104, plus those saved today. Such missions were time critical and she knew that any delay would probably prove to be lethal for someone, somewhere.

"A little recon," Ford said as they passed under the last of the orbiting cruisers. "Apparently the Wraith hit one of Stevenson's replicator worlds. It's less than half an hour away and he asked us to check it out."

"Very well," Teyla said. "Bring us out of hyperspace in high orbit, just to be on the safe side."

Ford turned to his lieutenant. "Hear that, Chuck?"

"Got it," the only other crewman on the bridge said.

"I'll be back in fifteen," Teyla said, walking off.

"If you're going to get some food, bring me back a red bar."

"If you must know, I'm going to wash my hair, but now that you mention it I'm a little hungry too. Do you want anything?"

"I'm good," Chuck said as the ship entered hyperspace. "Nice work down there, by the way."

Teyla smiled faintly. "It's still not enough."

"You can't do everything yourself, Teyla," Ford consoled her.

"No…but I'm working on it," she said in a mixture of sarcasm and defiance as she left.

Chuck laughed after she was gone and Ford turned to him, shaking his head in awe. "Just be glad she's on our side."


	3. Chapter 3

"It looks like you pissed them off," Elizabeth said as she, Stevenson, and Sheppard stood around the holographic sensor data being relayed to Atlantis via the _Daedalus_.

"What?" Sheppard complained. "One hive ship and some ground troops. We've taken out more than that before."

"They've never reacted like that," Elizabeth said, pointing at the hundred plus Wraith ships, "before. At least not while I was here."

"Maybe they finally got tired of fighting each other," Sheppard offered.

"They're goading us," Stevenson declared.

Sheppard and Weir both turned to look at him. "Come again?" Elizabeth said.

"They managed to find one of our outposts…now they're trying to draw us out into the open and assess our strength."

Sheppard glanced back at the hologram. "Son of a bitch."

"What do you want to do?" Elizabeth asked.

"Teyla," Stevenson said into the air. "Can you give us a multi-spectrum scan?"

"One moment," her disembodied voice said. Shortly thereafter the hologram altered into a kaleidoscope of color. Stevenson input a variety of commands into the holoprojector and sifted through the data. After thirty seconds the distinctive hulls of the Wraith ships reappeared with nearly all of the cruisers twinkling as if they were coated with sparkles.

"The biomass construction of their hulls," Stevenson explained when Sheppard gave him a funny look, "ages over time, slightly altering its composition. New growth contains a few extra compounds that fade away after a couple years."

"New growth," Elizabeth repeated, looking at the fleet of cruisers. "You're saying most of these ships are brand new?"

Stevenson nodded.

Sheppard cringed. "I guess using Atlantis in a space battle kind of gave us away."

"Probably," Stevenson agreed. "Now they're gearing up for a second war."

"Which they won last time through superior numbers," Elizabeth added.

"This time with a backup food supply," Sheppard said, referring to Teyla's recent report.

"Teyla," Stevenson said again, "can you confirm the gate was destroyed?"

"It's gone," she said, subdued.

Stevenson nodded. "We're going to write this one off as a loss. Withdraw from the system and continue your previous mission."

"Understood. _Daedalus_ out."

The hologram of the Wraith fleet disappeared and Stevenson began to leave the control room.

"That's it?" Elizabeth asked.

"For now, yes," he said, turning around.

Sheppard looked shocked. "We're just going to let them get away with this?"

"What would you suggest?"

"Well, what about the Columnar? It, plus the _Tria_, _Daedalus_, _Apollo_, and _Odyssey_ should be able to take out those cruisers…right?"

Stevenson raised an eyebrow. "Do you really think they pulled out all those ships just so we could destroy them?"

"You think they've got something hidden up their sleeve?" Elizabeth asked.

"They wouldn't go to those lengths unless they had something to gain," Stevenson said pithily. "We're not ready to take the fight to them yet. We need to resist the urge to act impulsively. The loss of that outpost will have an effect on our supply chain, yes, but it hardly cripples us. We have more sites coming online every month, and with the expansion rate of current installations we'll overcome this deficit within the week."

"So it didn't really hurt us," Elizabeth summed up.

"Just the ego," Stevenson said. "Which it was meant to."

"I still don't see why we shouldn't destroy some of their ships when we have the chance," Sheppard argued.

"If it was me," Stevenson told him, "I'd have another fleet or two waiting just outside the system to tip the scales."

"An ambush?" Elizabeth asked.

"I don't know for sure…but it's not worth the risk. At least, not until we have some backup."

"Well then," Elizabeth said, moving on, "I guess that's that."

Stevenson left the control room, but Sheppard stayed behind with Weir.

"Is it just me, or did he give up a little too easy?"

"He was upset," Elizabeth told him. "He just wasn't showing it."

Sheppard frowned. "You sure?"

Elizabeth nodded. "Yep…more so than you, believe it or not."

"Really," Sheppard said, reconsidering.

"By the way," Elizabeth said, changing subjects. "You've got chair duty when we move the city next week."

Sheppard looked shocked. "Stevenson going back to the Ori?"

Elizabeth nodded. "He said you could handle it."

"Hmm…about time," Sheppard complained. "Where are we going anyway?"

"Some desert planet rich in neutronium…uninhabited of course."

"Of course," Sheppard echoed. "Sand's not as soft as water, is it?"

"Worried?" she teased him.

"Nah, piece of cake. See you at lunch," he said, leaving the control room. "How the hell do I land in sand," he whispered to himself.

* * *

"This is not what I signed up for," Rodney complained when he returned to his quarters.

"What isn't?" Jennifer asked, putting down the book she was reading.

"Forget the seven newbie projects I've been assigned, the humiliation of Zelenka getting priority status in the assignment roster, and having one of the scientists I respect the most being debunked like a 1st year grad student…but now Weir's given me an ultimatum that I'm never going to be able to meet."

"I got one too," Jennifer said, rubbing his shoulders. "I'll admit what she's given me is difficult, but I figured you'd be up to the challenge…especially if it means a chance of becoming an Ancient."

"Normally yes, I would, but this is totally unfair," Rodney continued to complain.

"What's unfair," Jennifer reiterated.

Rodney cupped his head in his hands. "Physical training."

Jennifer tried to suppress a laugh, but didn't completely succeed.

"Oh, what? You think that's funny," he said, standing up. "You think I'm flabby, don't you?"

"I never said that…but working out a little couldn't hurt."

"A little! She said I have to run."

"Run?"

"Run…the same time that Stevenson gave her to meet. 19:59 for five kilometers."

Jennifer shrugged. "Is that fast?"

"Way fast," he said. "Faster than I'll ever be able to make."

"And you don't like that sort of thing…"

"What's your point?" Rodney asked, pacing back and forth in frustration.

"She gave me something I didn't like either."

"Like what?"

"It's…personal."

"I'm your husband."

"It's _very_ personal…frankly, I don't even know how she found out."

"What is it?" Rodney persisted.

Jennifer glared at him. "I told you it's personal."

"And you can't trust me?"

"It's not about trust…it's just something I have to confront on my own. You can't help me with it, and I'd prefer if you didn't ask me about it again."

"Is it something bad?"

"Rodney…"

"Ok, ok…if you want to keep secrets from me, that's fine."

"Don't take it that way."

"No, no. I'm ok with it."

"I know you're not…but it has to be this way."

"Are you going to be able to do it, whatever it is?"

Jennifer stiffened. "Honestly, I don't know if I even want to try."

"Why the hell not?"

"I don't like the idea that I'm somehow not good enough to do my job because I'm Human. I'm a darn good doctor, and I don't have to be upgraded to help people."

"Well that's just stupid," Rodney complained. "Of course you're good enough. But I for one would like to have you around for several hundred years, and to do that you're either going to have to become an Ancient, or I'll have to mummify your body…"

"Eew. That's gross."

"Yeah, I don't know why I just said that."

"Your eccentricity aside, I want to have you around as long as possible too."

"Well, then," Rodney said optimistically, "you're going to have to do whatever it is you don't want to tell me about."

"That works both ways," she said, eyeing him.

"What do you mean?"

"19:59."

Rodney slumped. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

"Maybe," she said playfully.

Rodney sat down next to her on their bed. "I really don't think I can."

"You can try," Jennifer prodded. "You didn't become a brilliant scientist overnight."

"True."

She grabbed his hand. "I'll take a swing at it, if you will."

Rodney sighed. "I'm going to regret this."

"Besides…you don't want Cadman becoming an Ancient before you, right?"

"Oh, god, you had to bring that up, didn't you."

"You work best under pressure," she kidded him as she slid up and onto his lap with her arms around his neck. "And the more pressure the better," she said, kissing him as she leaned him backward, smashing his body between the cushions and hers.

* * *

In one of Atlantis's restricted sections, Stevenson worked on a holographic model of DNA, reconfiguring base sequences to return some previous functionality that had been lost over the millennia. Given the mental development of the species, returning to a previous form wasn't possible…their biological hard drives simply weren't large enough to service a full consciousness, and he didn't want to revive them in a limited state.

He activated the computer modeling program with his most recent changes playing out. The holographic model expanded to a humanoid figure that grew 3% taller as a result. The mental capability statistics alongside the hologram also indicated an increase in brain functions in seven key areas…but a reduction in two others.

Stevenson highlighted the compromised areas and dug into the DNA strands responsible and continued to troubleshoot the differences between the genetic profile that he had implanted in his memory and the profile retrieved from the _Odyssey_.

A few minutes later he updated his model again, resulting in an improvement in one of the affected areas and a slight decrease in four others.

Undaunted, he continued methodically…and the holographic model of the Asgard body continued to subtly shift with each update.


	4. Chapter 4

Technician Ana Nordman stood watch in Atlantis's gateroom, a replacement for the recently promoted Devonshire, when the stargate activated. The blonde woman, barely out of her teens, frowned slightly as she looked for an identification code. All of Atlantis's teams were on site…maybe it was someone from the training center on Yavin.

The shield over the stargate disengaged without a code being transmitted and Ana's eyes went wide. The only person known to do that was Stevenson…and he was already on base.

She reached for the city's communication panel just as a woman walked through the gate and the wormhole shut down behind her. She stood tall and motionless a few feet beyond where the kawoosh would have materialized and said nothing. She simply stood there, still as a statue.

"Dr. Weir," Ana whispered into the link to her nearby office. "We have an unknown visitor."

Elizabeth stood up and dropped her datapad on her desk. "On my way," she said, stepping out of her office. When she did she got her first look at the visitor. The woman was tall and thin, dressed in an unusual robe that looked to be partially sheer. When Elizabeth made the full circuit around and down the steps she realized the garment wasn't fully solid. It was a mass of beads woven together in a complicated web-like pattern…and she could see her nude outline through the gaps.

"Hello," Elizabeth said cautiously. "Who are you and how did you get through our shield?"

The woman didn't answer. Her eyes were closed and she looked to be concentrating on something.

Elizabeth exchanged glances with the two security guards flanking the steps behind her and their replicator counterparts. The Humans shrugged. They didn't have a clue what was going on either.

"Ok…" Elizabeth said to herself, crossing her arms over her chest as she thought. A moment later the woman's eyes finally opened.

"Hi," Elizabeth said kindly, with a hint of sarcasm mixed in.

"_I am Andara_," she said in Ancient.

"_My apologies. I shouldn't have assumed you spoke English_," Elizabeth said quickly. "_How did you get past our shield?_"

"_Manually_," she said, still not moving from her statuesque pose.

"_I see_," Elizabeth said, wondering what exactly she meant by 'manually.' "_Well, what brings you to Atlantis?_"

"_I must speak with Stevenson_."

Elizabeth's eyes widened, then she nodded. "_That can be arranged_."

"_He is already on his way_."

Now Elizabeth frowned. "_You were talking to him telepathically a moment ago, weren't you?_"

"_Yes_."

"_May I ask how you know him?_"

Andara smiled slightly. "_He is my brother_."

"_Your brother?_" Elizabeth said, surprised. "_I'd hazard a guess that you're not from Earth…are you…Alterra?_"

Andara nodded politely, then her attention was caught by Stevenson coming down the stairs behind Elizabeth.

Weir gave him a 'why didn't you tell me' look, but Stevenson brushed her off.

"Later," he told Elizabeth as he walked by her and took Andara's hand in his in a greeting Weir wasn't familiar with. They appeared to have some type of silent conversation, then they walked off into Atlantis to who knew where.

Elizabeth, a bit flabbergasted, silently watched them go, noticing for the first time that Andara was barefoot…and had some intricate piece of jewelry woven into the back of her braided hair.

"What was that about?" one of the guards asked her.

"Beats me," she said, a little miffed. She was going to have a _very_ long conversation with Stevenson after he'd seen to his guest.

* * *

"_How bad is it?_" Stevenson asked telepathically as they walked through the city.

"_Two more planets have been infected_," Andara told him evenly. "_Our fleet can't stop their runners from getting through to the surface_."

"_Have the drones been effective?_"

"_Yes, we tested them on Jcora. They successfully intercepted two attempts by single runners…but then they started throwing multiple ships at us at once_."

"_I was afraid of that_," Stevenson said as they stepped into one of Atlantis's transporters.

"_We either need to widen the picket line or increase the concentration of drones…either way we need more of them. A lot more_."

"_The drones are neutronium heavy technology…as it is our supply of that element is extremely limited. I've been using most of it to create the replicators, which, in lieu of a traditional workforce are our only current means of fielding a sufficiently large logistics network_."

The doors parted and they walked on. "_I understand, but if we don't do something quickly the Feriorla infrastructure is going to implode due to lack of available personnel as more become infected and incapacitated_."

"_In a month we should have sufficient neutronium reserves to start fielding a larger number of defensive drones. In three days Atlantis will transfer to another planet, one rich in neutronium, and establish a resource collection hub such as we have here on Hoth. Given that we have available supplies to work with from the beginning this time, it shouldn't take very long to establish the subsurface mining conduits. As soon as the infrastructure starts to produce I'll route the majority of the neutronium to Dracona_."

Andara shook her head. "_That's not enough. We need you there to help us. I can't do it alone…at least, not good enough to stem the tide. If we don't do something soon our defenses are going to be reduced to such a state that will literally beg for invasion_."

"_I know_," Stevenson said slowly as they crossed into one of the Alterra-only sections of the city. "_I didn't want to do this originally, but given the lack of adequate candidates there's only one way for me to be in several places at once_."

Andara frowned. "_What do you mean?_"

Stevenson directed her into a nearby lab…and once she was inside she understood. "_How long?_"

"_Fifteen days…but I have to return to Destra tomorrow. I will be back here in ten days to overseen the final stages_."

"_Do you need a female template?_"

Stevenson shook his head. "_Not now. Ask me again in a hundred years or so_."

Andara slowly took his meaning. "_You don't expect to find many others?_"

"_I'm not counting on it_," Stevenson cautioned, "_but I haven't given up hope entirely_."

The female Alterra sighed. "_A month then?_"

"_At the most_."

She nodded. "_I should return then, and do what I can in the interim_."

"_Take a jumper with you. The pesqua onboard may prove effective against a single runner_."

Andara frowned. "_Jumper?_"

Stevenson smiled. "_My apologies. I meant a navicula porta. 'Jumper' is a term the new Lanteans use, and I've gotten used to using it_."

"_Will I be able to fly it without training?_"

"_The controls are intuitive…mental interfaces couples with hand controls. There's also an auto-navigation system if you have trouble_."

She nodded. "_Thank you_."

"_Actually, I'll go back with you now. That way you'll have two jumpers and twice the pesqua to use._"

Andara smiled. "_And to make sure I don't hit anything in the city?_"

"_If you're that worried you can ride with me and I'll remote pilot the second jumper_."

She shook her head. "_As a last resort. I wouldn't be much of an Alterra if I was scared to fly._"

"_You'll learn_," he said, taking her by the hand as they headed back to the control tower.

* * *

"What do you mean she's an Alterra?" Sheppard asked Stevenson after he'd returned to Atlantis.

"Yes," Elizabeth chimed in, blocking the stairway in front of the gate. "Why didn't you tell us?"

Stevenson glanced between the two. "I wasn't expecting her to come here."

"You still could have told us," Sheppard argued. "When I go to hit on a chick it's kind of important to know whether or not she can read my mind first," he said sarcastically.

Weir glared at John for a moment then turned back to Stevenson. "How many of you are there now?"

"Four…she's the most recent addition. Her transformation isn't complete yet."

"Where's she from anyway?" Sheppard asked.

"Dracona."

Sheppard raised his eyebrows. "Ok…Avalona or Pegasus?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "It's not a planet, John. It's another galaxy."

"What?!" Sheppard asked, all kidding gone. "I thought Avalona and Pegasus were the only galaxies with Humans."

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at Stevenson.

"There are seven," he told them.

"Seven!" Elizabeth exclaimed.

Stevenson nodded. "When the seeding project began, it was suggested that using multiple galaxies would increase the chances of success."

"If one galaxy of Humans was wiped out by an aggressor," Elizabeth said, understanding their logic, "then it was unlikely that that same aggressor would be able to extend their power and influence to another galaxy."

"Few civilizations have," Stevenson said, "even with the gate network we left behind."

"Did they all make it?" Sheppard asked.

Stevenson shook his head. "No…the seed species in Vela and Orona are gone. I don't know what happened to them. There are a few Humans left in Kestardra, and large populations in Dracona, Syrex, and Avalona, with a lesser number in Pegasus."

"You've been to all these galaxies?" Elizabeth asked.

"All 23 of them," Stevenson clarified.

Weir's jaw dropped. "Would it kill you to keep us in the loop?"

"You have no idea how busy I am…and how much I know."

"For starters, a map might help," Elizabeth argued.

Stevenson frowned and looked at Sheppard.

John sheepishly looked at Elizabeth. "I might have seen a map of the Ancient galaxies somewhere."

Elizabeth hit him in the shoulder. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Ow…It didn't come up," he said, rubbing his arm. "And you're one to talk. He made you an Ancient."

"And not you," Elizabeth said, nudging him. "Jealous?"

"Maybe a little," John said, avoiding Stevenson's gaze.

Weir tipped her head towards the Alterra.

"What?" Sheppard asked.

"He's standing here. Ask him."

Sheppard bit his teeth together in frustration. He didn't like her putting him on the spot. "Ok, why not," he said, turning to look at him. "Why her and librarian boy, and not me?"

"You're not a loser," Stevenson said.

"Well, I'm in agreement with you on that," Sheppard said sarcastically. "So what's the problem?"

"You think you are," Stevenson said as politely as he could.

Sheppard frowned. "No I don't."

"Yes, you do," he said firmly. "You see yourself as a screw up and doubt your self worth on a continual basis."

Sheppard frowned angrily. "Stay out of my head."

"Ever since your father told you you weren't…"

"We are not having this conversation," Sheppard said, pointing forcefully into Stevenson's face before he turned and walked off.

Elizabeth stepped closer to Stevenson. "I'm sorry. I really shouldn't have done that."

"He brought it up indirectly…which is a good sign. One way or another he needs to face this."

"I know," Elizabeth said softly. "I just wish there was an easier way to do it."

"Leave him be for a while. He needs to think this through on his own…and he's probably going to have to vent a lot of painful memories in the process."

Elizabeth glanced up at the slightly taller man. "You leaving for Celestis?"

Stevenson nodded. "I'll be back inside of two weeks, but I don't want you delaying the move. He can handle it."

"If he can't…"

"I promise I'll build you a new city," Stevenson said, mentally activating the stargate.

"You'd better," she said just before he went through. The gate deactivated and Weir resigned herself to having a conversation with John sometime tomorrow. That'd give him enough time to work through the obvious stuff…then she'd help him with the rest.

If he'd let her.


	5. Chapter 5

Atlantis dipped low in orbit above 'Dune' and began to lick the atmosphere. Sheppard, sitting in the city's control chair, wanted to bleed off as much momentum as he could up high and make this as gentle a decent as possible. He used both the thin upper atmosphere and the city's engines to burn off momentum, and did so at an angle so both provided some upward momentum.

As a result, Atlantis's altitude didn't drop more than a few hundred meters. As more of the city's weight came to bear, Sheppard adjusted the engine thrust away from horizontal. Slowly, the orbital velocity dissipated and Atlantis merely hung in the upper atmosphere, its engines keeping the city aloft.

"Now," Sheppard said to himself. "Nice and slow."

He pulled back on the thrust and the city/ship began to decrease in altitude. With the target coordinates emblazoned in mind's eye, Sheppard slid the downward trajectory to the west/northwest. As the city eased down through the thicker than average atmosphere, Atlantis's sensors began to map out the sand dunes in the target area.

Sheppard swallowed hard. There were several over 300 meters high, crisscrossing each other in what had appeared to be flat terrain from orbit.

Finding another landing area was out of the question. Stevenson had tagged these specific coordinates because of the proximity of available resources, so he had to put her down here.

He slowed the city until it hovered two kilometers above the surface. Buying time, he looked for a suitably wide crevice between the dunes, but none were measuring large enough.

"Please work," Sheppard said, picking the widest gap he could find.

Very slowly, only a few meters per second, Sheppard descended the city between two massive dunes. As the city's pylons dropped below the dune crests he slowed the decent to less than a meter per second. The city's engines and Sheppard's piloting ability were strained trying to maintain a precision drop with such a mass.

Halfway down between the dunes the outer edges of the city's shield brushed up against the sand…and began to carve out niches.

Sheppard kept a keen eye on the inclination of the city as it pressed against the sand. With artificial gravity enabled he could have landed it upside down and everything would be fine, but when the city was settled and the AG was turned off, if he didn't have the level just right, every round object in the city would roll off tables and across floors…including an oversized glass marble on Elizabeth's desk.

Moving a bit of sand wasn't a problem, but the lower Atlantis dropped, the more sand had to be moved. It buffeted the city off center by several degrees, and Sheppard had to raise it back up a few meters and try again.

After three unsuccessful attempts an idea struck him…and he smiled at the reaction he'd get from people across the city.

He pulled back up a few dozen meters then tipped the city on its side by about 20 degrees.

Balancing the thrust to keep them still and sideways was difficult, but the city's computers handled the calculations well. Now was the tricky part. He moved the city laterally, using the massive shield as a plow and pushed into the southern sand dune.

The resistance mounted quickly, but he applied more power to the engines and eventually broke through. Smiling, he pulled the city back and made another run further to the west…then the east…then spun the city around and did the same thing to the northern dune.

Six swipes in all leveled out the sand enough for him to right the city and descend into the gap between the dunes. The pylons no longer touched, and the bottom side of the shield smoothed out the remaining inconsistencies in the sand beneath them.

Sheppard checked the tilt of the city…it was .2% off. He raised them back up again, just enough to support their weight, but with no altitude, and moved the city sideways, smoothing the sand below. He wiggled Atlantis around for ten minutes before setting her back down again. He rechecked the tilt…0.0%.

Smiling, he retracted the shields underneath the city until the base of Atlantis was touched the sand. The shield then reformed underneath, skin tight again the city substructure but maintaining the bubble over top of the city that would keep out the blowing sand and the 150F air.

He deactivated the AG field and felt his limbs get a little heavier. Frowning, he checked the planet's gravity…1.07g.

"Elizabeth," he said through the city's intercom. "Is this too heavy, or do you want the artificial gravity to compensate?"

"Keep it on," she said from the doorway. Sheppard didn't realize she'd been there.

He reactivated the AG field, which drew only a small amount of power to tweak the planet's natural gravity. After powering down the city engines and initiating an auto-diagnostic of the stardrive Sheppard sat up and the chair went dark.

"Well done," Elizabeth congratulated him.

"How long have you been there?" he asked, standing up.

"Long enough. I didn't realize the sand would be that much of a problem."

"You looking out a window somewhere?"

Elizabeth pointed a thumb behind her. "Just down the hall. Pretty impressive view…especially when you tipped the city over."

"Liked that, did you?"

"I'll admit, my heart did skip a beat. Good thinking, by the way."

"Well, we're down now. Don't you have a civilization to build?" he said, walking by her.

"John…"

"What now?" he said, turning around.

"What did your father tell you?"

"Why don't you just read my mind?"

"I can't…not like that."

"Well isn't that refreshing. I guess private matters will stay private for a while then."

"You didn't answer my question," she prodded.

"No, I didn't," he said, walking off again. She ran after him and grabbed his shoulder.

"Stevenson said this was important and the only reason he didn't make you an ancient before me. Now John, you know me. I'm not trying to be nosy…I'm trying to help you."

Sheppard's jaw clenched, as well as his fist…then he released both with a sigh. "He said I was a disappointment."

"Why?" she asked, putting her hand on his shoulder.

"I wasn't living up to his expectations…I wasn't living up to the family name. When I finally decided to join the Air Force instead of following in his footsteps…he just shook his head, as if he'd expected as much from a disappointment like me…and we never spoke again."

"Why does his opinion mean so much to you?"

"It doesn't…but ever since I was a kid he was on my case, and it got into my head. No matter what I do, sooner or later his voice pops into my head saying I should have done this, or I didn't do that, and I can see him shaking his head. I know that sounds pathetic, but for some reason I can't let it go."

"You worry he might be right?" she guessed.

John sighed. "Maybe…I don't know."

"Did he have your respect?"

Sheppard looked at the ceiling for a moment. "I guess he did, when I was young. Later on I just remember hating him."

"Why did you hate him?"

He hit the wall in frustration, then yelled, "Because no matter what I did it was never good enough. He wouldn't give me credit for anything. It was always what I didn't do, or what I didn't do right. He had me pegged as a screw up. I couldn't get him to change his mind…and now I can't get it out of mine."

"Did you ever consider that his impression of you didn't come from you?"

Sheppard frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Maybe he wasn't really seeing you for you. Maybe he was envisioning himself in your shoes, in which case no one would be able to measure up."

"I know what you're saying…but it doesn't matter. It got to me then, and it's still there now."

"Then he wins," she said, a bit of challenge in her voice.

"Wins what?" he mumbled, not liking where this was going.

"You left him and your family, but inside," she said, poking him in the chest, "you never did. If he truly couldn't see you for what you are, then getting his approval wasn't possible. It was like a scam, where the game is fixed so you can't win. You're not concerned with what he thought of you…you're worried that he might have been right. You care about the quality of person you are, that's why, inside, you'll never quit. It's part of your personality, and a reason you're so good at what you do."

"So what's the magic answer?" he asked, leaning his back against the wall.

"The only person you need to prove yourself to is you…your dad thought less of you than you really are. Inside you rejected that idea…you fought it. You knew you were better than that, but you also thought that if you proved yourself to your dad he would acknowledge that fact…but because he didn't you feel that you didn't do something, that in some way it's your fault and not his."

"Still looking for that answer."

"You have to see the truth…that your dad's opinions weren't about you, they were about his ego. I'm guessing, of course, I never met the man, so stop me if I'm wrong. But it seems as if he was going to criticize you no matter what you did. If that's the case it wasn't a fair test…it wasn't a test at all. It was a lie…he lied to you, and because you're a perfectionist you didn't care about the lie, just the slim possibility that there might be some truth in it. Problem is, you still think like he's an impartial judge who will clear your conscience if you finally do the right thing. He won't…if for no other reason than he's no longer alive. But if he was…do you think he would have treated you any differently?"

"I doubt it."

"Even if he knew everything you've done here?"

"Probably not."

"Then forget him. If his opinion of you is a matter of his ego and not based in the truth then it doesn't matter. One of the things I've learned from the Ancients is that the truth is the antidote to most problems. You have to unravel the lies first, then you'll be able to see your way through this…and yes, that may be painful, but you can't let this continue. You know that, I can see it in your eyes."

"Every time I try to think this through, I end up getting nowhere. Logically I can make sense of it, but I can't feel it, and until I do all the logic in the world isn't going to help."

"What do you feel?"

He sighed. "Like a loser."

Elizabeth chewed on her lip. "I see."

The two of them remained silent for a long time.

"Do you ever feel your self worth…your skill, or as Ford might say it, your mojo?"

Sheppard half smiled. "Not usually."

"When have you?"

"When I'm not thinking. In combat, when I'm sick, when I know something that Rodney doesn't and I get to gloat."

"Don't we all," she said, referring to that last bit. "You mean when you're pressed to your limits?"

"I guess so."

Elizabeth nodded. "So you put yourself into situations, took on challenges, where you would be pressed."

He nodded.

She shook her head. "I wish you could see yourself through my eyes. You'd realize how ridiculous all this is."

Sheppard looked at her. "And what do you see?"

"This…" she said, cupping his head in her hands and kissing him.

She pulled back and kissed him a second time, then held the third for a long time before gently pulling back. "And that's not my hormones talking," she clarified.

Sheppard blinked, not sure what to say.

Elizabeth stepped back. "Remember that feeling the next time you even consider the possibility that you might be a loser. Your dad thought you were, I know for a fact that you're not…but in the end what we think doesn't really matter. It's what you think."

With that last word she turned around and walked off, both to leave Sheppard time to think and to get away from him after what she'd just done. She hadn't planned on doing that…it was just a spur of the moment idea, and frankly something that she'd wanted to do for a long time.

Sheppard stood where he was, leaning against the wall, and let her go. He replayed the kiss through his mind several times, wondering if that had really just happened. More than that, he could feel it inside him. He could feel her…appreciation for him. He let it sink in a while, just standing in the empty hallway and thinking things through. An hour later he finally left, walking away whistling Bond tunes.

* * *

Stevenson stood inside a long, large lab in the restricted sections of Atlantis holding a small green crystal. On it was Ryan's complete mental profile, every memory, every habit, every inclination, including the full knowledge granted him by the repository of knowledge…then edited inside the confines of what Ryan jokingly referred to as 'the cone of silence.'

Nearby, in another small lab, he'd made a few special modifications to the infrastructure. Now, at the press of a button, he and everything within the room would transition into an alternate dimension…one where the ascended empire couldn't snoop through the computer systems as he downloaded his secrets into data format.

He'd spent several days deleting the sensitive knowledge from his profile and adding a small amount of additional 'programming' to the mix. Some things he could only trust to himself, and given that his mind was the only one shielded from ascended intrusion, it made any questions to the contrary moot.

Ryan pressed a few control buttons on the alcove in front of him then inserted the crystal.

Nothing happened visually, and a moment later he retrieved the crystal, slipped it into his pocket, then hit one final button and stepped back.

The translucent panel in front of him retracted into the side of the alcove and a bit of steam rolled out. Then, dressed in a light blue version of the white uniform Ryan wore, a duplicate version of himself stepped out of the alcove.

Ryan raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, vocally or telepathically.

The clone stretched a bit, blinked twice, then looked at Ryan. "_Don't worry. I'm alright. Everything went as planned_…_and the pain is gone_."

"_And the gaps in your memory?_" Ryan asked.

Greg frowned. "_Detectable…annoying…but necessary_," he said, glancing around. "_Am I the first?_"

"_Yes. The others are fully developed, I just haven't imprinted them yet._"

"_Let's test a theory_," Greg said, holding up his fist.

Ryan did likewise. The moved their arms in sync and both threw 'paper.' They went again and both threw 'scissors.' On the third time, Ryan threw 'paper' and Greg threw 'scissors.'

"_Myth busted_," Ryan noted, putting his hand down.

"_How old is the imprint?_" Greg asked.

"_Four weeks_," he said as he telepathically updated his duplicate on recent events.

Greg nodded. "_Shall I go to Dracona, or one of the others? You have to be the one in Destra…you're the Orici, not me…or them._"

"_I know. If you want Dracona you can have it, unless you'd prefer another assignment._"

"_First come, first serve, huh_," Greg said, looking back at his 24 brothers still in their alcoves. Ryan had dressed each of them in identical, yet differently colored uniforms. "_And you're wondering if I have a predisposition?_"

"_I doubt it would show up yet, but you are encouraged to diversify by choice or predisposition, if such a thing manifests itself._"

"_I imagine it will_," Greg said, mirroring Ryan's thoughts. "_If it's all the same to you, I'll take the city/ship project._"

Ryan frowned. "_That's still years off._"

"_Not the design phase. We both know there's a lot of room for improvement, even if we choose to keep the spires._"

"_I hadn't considered that…recently._"

"_Well, now that I don't have to worry about everything else I have the freedom to consider other angles._"

Ryan nodded. "_Very well. It's not a high priority project right now, but it needs done. Get yourself through the verification training before you attempt using the mental interface._"

Greg raised an eyebrow. "_You finished it, I assume?_"

"_Of course._"

"_If that's all, I'll get on it right away._"

"_One last thing_," Ryan said. "_I wasn't able to get your physical template as close to mine as I'd hoped. Don't expect your kinetic memories to match up exactly when you're running through the obstacle course._"

"_That, and I'm all of two minutes old_," Greg said, predicting Ryan's next statement. "_I'll take it slow._"

Ryan nodded and Greg left the lab for the specialized training center he'd constructed for the explicit use of his clones. All of them were going to have to physically check out before he'd let them leave Atlantis. He was activating each of them individually so he could check their mental state immediately…just in case there had been an unanticipated problem with the duplication process.

Ryan walked down to the second slot and inserted the crystal into Nick's alcove and downloaded his mental profile again. A moment later the translucent panel in front of him retracted into the side of the alcove and a bit of steam rolled out. Then, dressed in a dark red uniform, his duplicate stepped out of the alcove.

Ryan raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

The clone stretched a bit, blinked twice, then looked at Ryan. "_Don't worry. I'm alright. Everything went as planned_…_and the pain is gone_."

* * *

"_Well?_" Ryan asked Elizabeth as he sat down next to her in the concealed observation room overlooking the training facility with the clones in action.

"_Very…freaky_," she said, hesitating.

"_It's not the first time we've done this._"

She turned to him in shock. "_There are more of you out there?_"

"_No_," Ryan said, shaking his head. "_I meant this isn't the first time the Alterra have done this._"

"_Oh, sorry. Maybe it is just because I'm a newb, but somehow this just seems…wrong_."

"_That's because you don't understand it_."

"_Enlighten me_," she said as she watched identical copies of him run, jump, punch, lift, and throw as they ran through a set of predetermined drills which also included use of their 'special' abilities, some of which Elizabeth didn't realize Ryan even had.

"_For starters, they aren't me_."

She frowned. "_I thought that's exactly what a clone was_."

"_No. Every being is unique, no matter how close they resemble others. Each of them,_" he said, pointing through the one way panel, "_has their own unique core energy. We can't copy that, and we can't create it. We've tried to learn why for millions of years, but there's something about life itself that we can't pin down. We have, however, learned how to predict and manipulate it._"

"_I'm not sure I like the word 'manipulate_.'"

"_I didn't mean it like that_," he chided her. "_There are two types of clones. Ones with core energy, and those without it. Your body is one of the latter_."

Elizabeth glanced down at her arm when Ryan poked her. "_Which is why there aren't two of me in here?_"

"_Right. I synthesized your body from your genetic profile. It was 'alive' so much as your autonomic systems were functioning, but there was no one at the controls. The only way to reproduce core energy is to start with cells that already contain it. Then, and only then, will a new core form. We don't know why, exactly, but the process has been studied and documented thoroughly_."

"_What about cells from a corpse?_"

Ryan shrugged. "_Depends how old it is. Eventually the core energy fades from the tissue. If you want to clone a living being from ancient cellular tissue, you have to graft the DNA from that tissue onto a neutered, living cell from another species_."

"_Like Jurassic Park_…"

"_Oddly enough, yes_," he admitted.

"_So you could bring the dinosaurs back if you wanted?_"

Ryan smiled. "_A discussion for another time. Let's stick with this one for now_."

Elizabeth frowned. "_More secrets…maybe I'll have better luck with them_."

"_I doubt it. Besides, there are reasons why I haven't told you everything yet. In time I will. I promise_."

"_Really…that's quite a change_."

"_Lantean or not, you're going to play a major role in what's to come. These things you will need to know in time_."

"_I can live with that…now, about the cloning and how I shouldn't be freaked out by all of this._"

"_Core energy_," he said, back on topic, "_is different for each individual, randomly so. It doesn't matter the nature of the parent organism, so those people out there aren't going to have the same core energy as me. It would be as if I'd put you into one of those bodies. You would still be you and not me_."

"_I get it…though the thought of being male is, interesting_."

"_I can still read your thoughts, you know_."

"_I've given up being embarrassed around you. If you don't like what I'm thinking, don't look_," she said, unconcerned.

"_I wasn't criticizing_."

"_I can sense that_," she told him, cherishing the irony, "_and how you think the old me would have reacted differently. I don't know…I guess maybe I've grown up a bit_."

"_With thoughts like that?_" Ryan kidded her.

She laughed. "_Point_."

"_That's called growing up without growing old…in some ways you end up younger than before_."

"_Core energy_," she reminded him. "_They're all different inside_."

"_But that's where the individuality ends_," he said, serious again. "_Normally when we clone people we allow them to develop from infants…no different than you having an identical twin at birth. Right now, however, we don't have that kind of time, nor the personnel to run a proper maturia, so I forced their physical development to match my profile…or as close as I could get it. The construction of the brain is also included in this, and must be in order to download my memories and skills. Without a match, much would be loss due to incompatibility…like trying to run a large program on too small of a hard drive_."

"_They have your memories?_" Elizabeth asked. "_And that doesn't bother you?_"

"_Meaning a sense of privacy? No. I don't have any embarrassing secrets to hide, and things I once thought of as such lost their importance when I became Alterra. The life I lived on Avalon is barely a wisp of memory_."

"_Interesting_," Elizabeth said, forming a question in her mind that she didn't want to say out loud.

Ryan raised an eyebrow. "_Not as a hobby_," he said, referring to her wondering about any childhood sexual explorations he might have had, "_but exploring one's functionality isn't something to frown on_."

"_I hadn't looked at it that way_," she admitted, a bit red.

"_Guilty conscience?_" he asked.

She turned even redder, then checked herself. "_I guess my reacting like this is kind of silly…but you know how our former culture viewed such things_."

"_Leaving a portion of your functionality unexplored would be the mistake_," he told her, "_much like your physical training. You understand yourself more now that you've gone through the learning curve_."

"_That I have_," she admitted. The running had been good for her in many ways, and now that she'd gotten a taste for it she wasn't about to quit. She made sure to get at least a short workout in every morning before she attended to her duties. "_And I guess Earth isn't very knowledgeable on sexual matters_."

"_No, they're not. They see it as all manner of things, but the simple truth is it's a biological imperative to reproduce. Work through the logic from that starting point and it's not difficult to understand_."

"_Which brings up a question…if you don't mind?_" she asked hesitantly.

"_Alterra and sex?_"

"_Yes_."

Ryan shrugged. "_After you get past the newness of it in your adolescent years it isn't a big deal. Inherently it's an illusion, and as such is counter to the truth, so you don't have any Alterra sex fanatics. However, once you pick apart your emotions and discover what part's truth and what part's illusion it simply becomes a biological function. On occasion it can be used for stress relief or distraction, but on the whole Alterrans don't use it much_."

"_What about reproduction?_"

"_Some do_," Ryan admitted, "_but most Alterra females don't want to go through the pregnancy cycle, and I don't blame them. We use labs like they were grown in,_" he said, pointing at the clones, "_to develop them to the point where they can be put into a maturia. In fact, most Alterran sex happens in the maturia as they learn and grow_."

Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. "_Is that by design?_"

"_Yes. Part of their training involves sexual exercises designed to give the young ones an opportunity to study and experience what is essentially a binary function. Leaving it up to random social interactions is like trying to learn to pilot a jumper by listening to someone else talk about it in the commissary_."

"_Is this peer to peer, or with their trainers?_"

"_Both_."

"_How young are they when this training happens?_"

"_It begins around age twelve_."

"_Twelve! Isn't that a little young? They're not even fully mature at twelve_."

"_Humans aren't_," Ryan clarified, "_but Alterrans mature quicker. A twenty year old Human is equivalent to a twelve year old Alterra_."

"_I didn't know that_," Elizabeth admitted. "_So how long do they stay in the maturia?_"

"_It varies depending on when they test out. Usually it's around age 30_."

Elizabeth frowned. "_So they're in 'school' even though they're adults?_"

"_Physical maturity isn't the end of learning, Elizabeth. Some things, like the sexual training, can only be properly learned once they're physically mature. You couldn't run like you do now when you were a kid…you're capabilities are limited until you become an adult. People on Avalon have it all backwards_."

"_Hmmn, I hadn't thought about that. I guess I kept looking back at my youth as if my best years were behind me_."

"_Your 'youth' is a myth_," Ryan told her. "_What most people call 'youth' is the maturation cycle when your body and mind are still growing. Part of your functionality is on auto-pilot at the time, which makes you less capable than an adult version of yourself. Once you fully mature that auto-pilot shuts down and you can really start to kick butt…but most Humans don't have a clue what to do and begin to deteriorate. For them, in their ignorance, laziness, apathy, etc, they were better off with the auto-pilot. That's why they think their 'youth' evaporates with the years_."

"_Wait a minute_," Elizabeth stopped him. "_The 'auto-pilot' as you called it…is part of the subconscious mind's functions?_"

Ryan nodded.

"_Ok, so when it kicks off you have to start…peddling on your own. Like training wheels on a bike? When you're new, they keep you from falling over…but you can't make sharp turns with them on. You take them off once you learn to ride, and suddenly you can do a lot of things you couldn't do with them on_."

"_Good analogy_," he said. "_But some people never learn to ride while the training wheels are on. They come off automatically once the maturation cycle ends. They don't train to increase their abilities, often they do stupid things that directly damage their body and mind, all the while the attrition of the environment wears them down further_."

"_Attrition_," Elizabeth said, fully understanding, "_that your body can heal if it's strong enough, but it won't get strong unless you train…and if you stop training you'll end up losing your strength and the attrition will win in the long run_."

"_Which is why I insisted that you begin training before I'd make you a Lantean._"

"_If I don't train, I'll eventually succumb to attrition too, it'll just take longer since my natural healing ability is higher than a Human's_."

Elizabeth glanced out the window. "_What about them? They're fully mature now_."

"_That's why they have my mental template…they know everything I know, including how to train and why it's essential to their longevity. They don't have the learning curve…but over time they will learn additional things to add to the knowledge they gained from my template._"

Elizabeth rubbed her chin. "_How long before they're ready to get to work?_"

"_A few days at most_," Ryan said, a little subdued. "_We just need to make sure there weren't any complications with the cloning process…so they're testing their functionality now._"

"_No sex training, I take it?_"

Ryan shook his head. "_This isn't training, just a basic test_."

"_Where does homosexuality fit in?_" she asked, curious.

"_Nothing more than a glitch in your sexual programming…easily correctible. Takes about thirty seconds in the DNA resequencer._"

"_That's it?_"

"_That's it_."

"_Huh, and to think of all the trouble that debate's caused on Earth._"

"_Primitive civilizations are prone to such ignorance-induced problems…it's why we didn't decide to repopulate the galaxies on a whim. We knew the type of problems that would arise when we devolved our form, but it was either that or extinction. This way, at least, we stood a fighting chance._"

"_And it worked_," Elizabeth said, squeezing his shoulder. "_Not to mention that fact that everyone on Earth wouldn't exist if you hadn't._"

Ryan half smiled. "_It's not over yet. Not by a long shot._"

"_The risky part is, right?_"

"_The helpless part is…but we're not to the risky part yet_."

Elizabeth frowned. "_Something else you can't tell me?_"

"_Afraid so_."

"_As long as you've got a handle on it._"

"_I'm working on it_," Ryan clarified.

"_Good enough for me_," Elizabeth declared. "_But someday, you _are_ going to have to tell me what's really going on._"


End file.
